What was the Certificate of Exemption from the Dictation Test? Between 1904 and 1959, customs officials recorded the details of Chinese and Indian Victorians who travelled overseas under a certificate exempting them from having to sit the notorious dictation test on their return to Australia. They recorded the names, ages, nationalities, occupations, residencies and shipping details of these people. Currently all of these details are locked away, unsearchable, unless you know the date of issue of a particular certificate. We plan to change that by creating a searchable index of these records and we’d like you to help!

Bring your laptop or tablet to the Chinese Museum in Melbourne and help us to transcribe the key details from these three registers using our specially designed online system.

The day will include two specialist talks.

Tips for undertaking Chinese Australian family history.

The historical significance of these registers.

You’ll also have the opportunity to explore the Chinese Museum’s five floors of displays about the history and heritage of the Chinese in Australia.

What will I do on the day?

You will be assigned some documents to transcribe and transfer to an online database. On the day, you will provided with all the training to help you with this task. We need people who can enter information into a computer and people who can read old style handwriting.

If you have both skills, we need you

If you are comfortable with computers but have little experience reading old script, we need you.

If you can read old script but don’t like computers, we still need you.

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